Injuries to Amonsot and Katsidis Could Have Been Minimized
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 24 Jul 2007
Watching the Michael Katsidis/CzarAmonsot fight last Saturday at the Mandalay through my 300mm digital camera lens from the overhead photographers section was something that scared the mittens out of me. I mean, I have seen a lot of fight injuries before, and as a dentist with post graduate hospital surgical training, I have seen my share of oro-facial injuries. Even with that however, I was still so concerned on what I saw.
In my humble opinion, I thought the fight should have been stopped at least in the middle rounds. I saw no reason for the referee and/or ring doctor, David Watson to have allowed Katsidis to continue given the magnitude of the facial cuts he suffered.
Stopping the fight could have made a hell of a lot of difference on the health of the two fighters. And, a re-matched between the two undamaged fighters would have been another crowd pleaser.
Reports indicated that Katsidis needed 26 sticthes to close all the cuts in his face attributed to the heavy punches of Amonsot and the accidental butts that occurred because of the fighting style of Katsidis. And, Amonsot had to stay at a hospital ICU and have multiple CAT-Scan and MRI to monitor the suspected sub-dural hematoma that he suffered.
To David Watson, I ask:- Did that really need to happen? I could understand 3, 5 or even slightly more. But 26 stitches to close all his cuts?
Stopping the fight somewhere in the middle rounds could have also saved Amonsot from the suspected sub-dural hematoma he suffered. Now, in all probability, Amonsot’s career as a fighter has come to an end. The best that Tony Aldeguer can now do is to give the kid a job as a trainer. It could also have save Katsidis from the agony and pain from all those cuts.
I am positive that David Watson’s job last Saturday was very difficult at best. He was under the scrutiny of all the fans and the people who hired him to act as the ring doctor to protect the fighters.
Did he do his job as well as he could? He alone can answer that.
He, as well as others can also argue that injuries are part of the game. People pay money to see boxers beat each other up. So what if they get hurt?
In addition, who I am to question the doctor’s judgement?
Personally however, I felt he could have done a lot better by stopping the fight and saving Katsidis and Amonsot from the unnecessary injuries they suffered to come back and fight another day.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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